Drawing upon decades of experience, RAND provides research services, systematic analysis, and innovative thinking to a global clientele that includes government agencies, foundations, and private-sector firms.

The Pardee RAND Graduate School (PRGS.edu) is the largest public policy Ph.D. program in the nation and the only program based at an independent public policy research organization—the RAND Corporation.

Purchase

Purchase Print Copy

Abstract

In response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Congress mandated that all bags carried onto aircraft — including baggage checked at the ticket counter — be inspected for contraband (e.g., bombs). This briefing summarizes the results of a RAND study that calculated the minimum cost to the nation’s economy of providing baggage scanning at all U.S. airports without affecting security. These costs include the cost of the extra time the passenger spends at the airport due to the length of the baggage screening queues, and the estimated cost to the passenger related to the deployed scanning equipment — assuming that this cost will be charged to the passengers through a security tax added to all tickets. The authors also perform a more complex calculation in which they substantially broaden the calculation to include the entire aviation industry to better captures the effects on the nation’s economy. As a variant, they discuss the pros and cons of positive passenger profiling, sometimes called a “registered traveler” program. Their results show that an optimal baggage screening capability would be achieved if baggage-scanning queues were kept to no more than five minutes.

Related Products

This report is part of the RAND Corporation documented briefing series. RAND documented briefings are based on research presented to a client, sponsor, or targeted audience in briefing format. Additional information is provided in the documented briefing in the form of the written narration accompanying the briefing charts. All RAND documented briefings undergo rigorous peer review to ensure that they meet high standards for research quality and objectivity. However, they are not expected to be comprehensive and may present preliminary findings. Major research findings are published in the monograph series; supporting or preliminary research is published in the technical report series.

This research in the public interest was supported by RAND, using discretionary funds made possible by the generosity of RAND's donors, the fees earned on client-funded research, and independent research and development (IR&D) funds provided by the Department of Defense.

Permission is given to duplicate this electronic document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Copies may not be duplicated for commercial purposes. Unauthorized posting of RAND PDFs to a non-RAND Web site is prohibited. RAND PDFs are protected under copyright law. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit the RAND Permissions page.

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.

The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest.